Huge thanks to this month’s donor, who wishes to remain anonymous but has asked me to post a link to this poem by their friend, Arthur L Wood. I’m no great shakes when it comes to literary criticism but I was moved by its tenderness and honesty, and heartily recommend giving it a listen.
“10 years after the Paris Agreement, we have reached a ‘3-year average global temperature anomaly of +1.5°C in 2 or more datasets’!
“And we can’t blame El Niño for this, as ENSO was on average negative during this period.
“The Paris Agreement was doomed from the start.” [Leon Simons]
https://x.com/LeonSimons8/status/1998442931078778959
“A wind burst forming over remote ocean may affect global weather in 2026.
“A wind shift raises the odds of a planet-warming El Niño, with the potential to break temperature records… “This is concerning, because that would probably mean that we set another new global temperature record and possibly by a significant margin,” [Daniel] Swain said.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025/12/10/wind-burst-el-nino-weather-2026/
“The average thickness of Arctic sea ice reached a new all-time minimum this year (in this dataset)…
More graphics here [Zack Labe’s website]
https://zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-ice-volumethickness/
“Abnormal mildness in GREENLAND:
“In places like Narsarsuaq and Julianehab temperatures have remained well above freezing for some days/nights in a row including with MINIMUMS +5C [41F], near the warmest winter Minimums ever recorded in Greenland (Julianehab 0.2C from the record).”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1998366301967065497
“No criminality has ever been established for the cause of Scotland’s largest ever wildfires, Police Scotland has confirmed.
“Blazes burned across an unprecedented 11,827 hectares of moorland and woodland on Dava Moor and by Carrbridge for several days from the end of June and continued on and off for a fortnight after.”
“Farmers and supermarkets worry that extreme weather will stop food getting to consumers [UK]…
“Extreme weather, like the floods and high winds of Storm Bram on December 9, is reshaping UK farming. A recent survey found that 87% of farmers have seen lower productivity because of droughts, floods or heatwaves, and major retailers now link higher food prices to weather-related harvest losses.”
“UK stadiums swap beef burgers for wild venison to cut carbon emissions.
“The humble beef burger is disappearing from menus at stadiums across Britain, as venues such as Brentford’s Gtech Stadium switch to wild venison in a bid to slash carbon emissions.”
“EXTRAORDINARY WARMTH ALL OVER EUROPE – hundreds of records of high max/high mins are being pulverized in the most record breaking event in European history. Maxes up to 25C [77F], ins locally >15C.
“Only Italy was skipped – the only country in the world with no records for months.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1998449052246327639
“Europe in full overheating for this December 2025! The latest update of the American model projects a monthly anomaly of +2 to +4°C over a large part of the continent! (via NOAA).“
[Guillaume Séchet]
https://x.com/Meteovilles/status/1998778984700506440
“Tornado Ravages Olive Groves in Zakros [Crete].
“A violent tornado struck the community of Zakros in the Municipality of Sitia on Friday (05/12), leaving behind a scene of extensive destruction. The phenomenon, which residents describe as unlike anything they have ever experienced, tore through olive groves and caused severe structural damage to local businesses.”
https://www.argophilia.com/news/zakros-tornado/246797/amp/
“North Cyprus sees extreme flooding due to torrential rainfall.
“Videos shared across social media during the freak weather showed dams and riverbeds overflowing, water cascading down mountain tops at alarming rates, and muddy floodwater sweeping through roads, homes and businesses, leaving devastation behind.”
“The rising cost of hailstorms and what it means for South African farmers…
“The high frequency and shifting nature of hailstorms now poses a significant threat to farmers in these regions, with direct consequences for agri-businesses and the country’s wider food system.”
“‘Climate whiplash’: East Africa caught between floods and drought.
“At dawn in the town of Mai Mahiu, Kenya, all is quiet. No goat bells ring, no voices call across farm fields, there is no rustle of maize leaves in the morning wind. Instead, the air smells of churned mud and uprooted vegetation, a reminder of the April 2024 floods that tore through this valley.”
“Nearly 2 million Kenyans face acute food insecurity, Kenya Red Cross warns.
“The humanitarian agency says severe water shortages, rising cases of malnutrition, and long treks to the few remaining water points are placing immense strain on families in the hardest-hit counties.”
“Saudi Arabia’s peak rainfall now shifting to December, climate data shows.
“Saudi Arabia is experiencing a noticeable shift in its seasonal rainfall patterns, with the annual peak now moving from November to December, according to new scientific assessments from the National Centre for Meteorology (NCM).”
“Severe Floods Hit Jeddah, Saudi Arabia After Heavy Rainfall…
“Recent reports indicate heavy rainfall exceeded 179 mm [seven inches] in just six hours, far above the city’s November average of 23 mm and annual average of 55.6 mm. At least two fatalities have been reported, and many homes experienced power outages. Schools and universities in affected areas have been temporarily closed.”
https://colombogazette.com/2025/12/10/severe-floods-hit-jeddah-saudi-arabia-after-heavy-rainfall
“Dubai and Doha are unstoppable: they are on their way to their hottest year.
“DUBAI in 2025 is the world’s hottest place outside the tropics, while DOHA might become the northernmost place with an >30C [86F] yearly average temperature. Their warming in the past decades has been brutal.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1998692436764405833
“Minimum 21.7 [71.1F] Salmiya – KUWAIT HOTTEST WINTER NIGHT broken for the 3rd time in a row!
“All Kuwait stations had mins >20, most of them for the first time in winter including the Int. AP.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1998712235062182108
“Heavy rains flood tents sheltering the displaced, heaping misery on Gaza.
“Heavy rainfall in advance of Storm Byron began before dawn on Wednesday, submerging thousands of tents in several areas across the besieged and bombarded territory. Palestinian Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal warned in a video statement of an “imminent humanitarian disaster” resulting from the severe weather conditions.”
“Record rains trigger deadly floods across Kurdistan.
“The three-day deluge brought rainfall levels not seen in years, killing residents, destroying homes and public facilities, crippling infrastructure, and cutting roads across multiple districts.”
https://shafaq.com/en/Kurdistan/Record-rains-trigger-deadly-floods-across-Kurdistan
“Russia Revives Plan to Redirect Siberian Rivers [the river Ob in particular] as Central Asia Faces Worsening Water Crisis…
“Experts warned of large-scale flooding, disruptions to groundwater, damage to fish stocks, displacement of Indigenous communities, and unpredictable impacts on permafrost and regional climate systems.”
“Dust storm hits Issyk-Kul region: Wind reaches up to 35 meters per second [Kyrgyzstan].
“A powerful dust storm swept through Toru-Aigyr and several coastal settlements of Issyk-Kul, making movement nearly impossible. Visibility dropped sharply, in some places to just a few meters, eyewitnesses reported.”
“First rain of autumn falls in Iran’s capital, but the drought-ravaged nation needs far more…
““The current acute crisis is part of a longer-term water crisis in Iran and the wider region that results from a range of issues including frequent droughts with increasing evaporation rates, water-intensive agriculture and unsustainable groundwater extraction,” World Weather Attribution said in a recent report.”
“Iran launches cloud-seeding drones to combat drought and increase rainfall.
“Alalam News, a media partner of TV BRICS, reported that this project is part of Iran’s efforts to address the challenges of drought and water scarcity, which significantly affect agriculture and daily life in the country.”
https://tvbrics.com/en/news/iran-launches-drones-to-combat-drought-and-increase-rainfall/
“Soon Valley’s lakes shrink amid silent water crisis [Punjab, Pakistan]…
“In recent years, widespread electricity shortages and rising diesel prices have pushed farmers to replace traditional water pumps with solar-powered submersible systems. These solar pumps run throughout the day at zero operational cost, encouraging farmers to extract groundwater without restriction.”
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2581534/soon-valleys-lakes-shrink-amid-silent-water-crisis
“‘Even the animals seem confused’: a retreating Kashmir glacier is creating an entire new world in its wake.
“From the slopes above Pahalgam, the Kolahoi glacier is visible as a thinning, rumpled ribbon of ice stretching across the western Himalayas. Once a vast white artery feeding rivers, fields and forests, it is now retreating steadily, leaving bare rock, crevassed ice and newly exposed alpine meadows.”
“TMD issues warning No.8: heavy rain batters South for 6 days, flash flood risk in multiple provinces [Thailand]…
“TMD urges people in risk areas to watch for flash floods and run-off, especially in foothills, near waterways and low-lying zones. Mariners in the Gulf and Andaman Sea should navigate with caution and avoid storm areas…”
https://www.nationthailand.com/news/general/40059559
“‘Not normal’: Climate crisis supercharged deadly monsoon floods in Asia.
“The climate crisis supercharged the deadly storms that killed more than 1,750 people in Asia by making downpours more intense and flooding worse, scientists have reported. Monsoon rains often bring some flooding but the scientists were clear: this was “not normal”.”
“Floods and Landslides Hit North Sumatra’s South Nias.
“Floods and landslides struck several districts in South Nias regency in North Sumatra on Thursday, after heavy rain and strong winds lashed the region. In Ndraso Village, Maniamolo District, floodwater reaches up to 1.5 meters high and inundated 4 hectares of rice fields.”
https://en.tempo.co/read/2072672/floods-and-landslides-hit-north-sumatras-south-nias
“BMKG Reports Potential Cyclone 91S in Southwest Indian Ocean, Off the Coast of Lampung.
“The latest analysis from the Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) indicates that potential cyclone 91S is expected to continue causing rain in the southern region of Sumatra Island.”
“Never ending record heat in SE ASIA:
“Nearly 1000 consecutive days breaking records every single day, without exception. Today it was the December hottest night in history at Catarman, PHILIPPINES with a Minimum of 26.4C [79.5F].”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1998584156352295382
“Heat stress, rare disease wipe out Goniopora coral colonies on Great Barrier Reef.
“Three-quarters of Goniopora corals at One Tree Reef have died after bleaching and black band disease. The losses occurred during the fourth global mass bleaching event, affecting 84% of reefs worldwide.”
“Australia heatwave warnings: 50C temperature range and fire danger.
“Wild weather can be expected in the days ahead, alongside elevated fire danger as scorching temperatures and likely thunderstorms plague Australia. Multiple heatwave warnings are in place for parts of Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland…”
“Lives and homes are under threat across Perth’s south-east and north-east as two fast-moving bushfires reach emergency level.
“The fires have forced evacuations in suburbs including Kenwick, Wattle Grove, Upper Swan and Bullsbrook.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-11/kenwick-wattle-grove-maddington-beckenham-bushfire/106132334
“Southern Brazil hit by extratropical cyclone.
“Heavy rainfall triggered by an extratropical cyclone battering Southern Brazil caused widespread flooding on Tuesday, turning streets into rivers and hillsides into waterfalls across Florianópolis, São José, Palhoça, and Biguaçu.”
https://en.mercopress.com/2025/12/09/southern-brazil-hit-by-extratropical-cyclone
“Days After COP30, Brazil Weakened Amazon Safeguards.
“Despite claims of environmental leadership and promises to preserve the Amazon rainforest ahead of COP30, Brazil is stripping away protections for the region’s vital ecosystems faster than workers dismantled the tents that housed the recent global climate summit in Belém.”
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09122025/brazil-weakens-amazon-forest-protection/
“Amazon rainforest is transitioning to a ‘hypertropical’ climate — and trees won’t survive that for long…
“Currently, the Amazon rainforest experiences hot drought conditions a few days or weeks of the year. But due to climate change, the region’s dry season — which typically lasts from July to September — is getting longer, and the annual proportion of hotter-than-normal days is increasing.”
“‘It was a matter of time’: Illness affecting bats may have arrived in Las Vegas.
“The fungal disease is known as white-nose syndrome, and it’s considered to be the single most deadly wildlife disease outbreak in North American history. Scientists first documented the disease in New York in 2006, and it has since spread westward and killed about 6 million bats.”
https://phys.org/news/2025-12-illness-affecting-las-vegas.html
“DECEMBER SUMMER IN CALIFORNIA – an exceptionally long winter warm spell of 2 weeks is persisting in the West: Today up tp 91F/33C at Pala.
“Widespread warmth will continue for 10+ more days. Enjoy swimming pools and beachtime.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1998933950719508815
“Utah just had its warmest November — and fall — on record.
“Utah just had its warmest November on record. The average temperature was more than one degree higher than the state’s previous record set in 2017, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Utah also broke the record for its warmest autumn.”
“Polar vortex sending ‘wrecking ball’ of cold air to central and eastern US.
“A polar vortex disruption is expected to flood the central and eastern United States with some of the world’s coldest air this weekend, bringing extreme wind chills and temperatures far below average…”
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/weather/2025/12/09/polar-vortex-forecast-coldest-air/87674368007/
“RECORD WINTER WARMTH IN WASHINGTON:
“72F [22.2C] at Yakima and 71F at Richland are the highest December temperatures ever recorded in both cities. Next night will be exception as well with many stations failing to drop below 50F. Atmospheric rivers will keep bringing warm air to the NW.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1998943288087437561
“Tens of thousands in Washington could face evacuations as rain continues to pound the region…
““We feel very confident that we can handle a ‘normal flood,’ but no one really knows what a 41, 42 foot river looks like south of Mount Vernon,” Darrin Morrison, a commissioner for Dike District 3 in Skagit County, said during a public meeting Wednesday night.”
“Flooding in parts of B.C.’s Fraser Valley leads to major highway closures, state of emergency.
“Major highways between B.C.’s Lower Mainland to the Interior have been closed, and a travel advisory has been issued. A flood warning is in effect for the Sumas River, including Washington state’s Nooksack River — which is expected to overflow and send water north across the border.”
“Chemical traces of 2023 Canadian wildfires detected in Maryland months after smoke subsided…
“”Even when the Air Quality Index was good—long after the fires started to dwindle—we still found similar compounds that we saw during the Canadian wildfire event,” said study senior author Akua Asa-Awuku, a professor in UMD’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.”
https://phys.org/news/2025-12-chemical-canadian-wildfires-maryland-months.html
“Global warming amplifies extreme day-to-day temperature swings, study shows.
“A new study has revealed that rapid, large-scale day-to-day temperature fluctuations have intensified amid global warming, representing a distinct climate hazard with impacts on human health. This growing volatility creates a weather pattern akin to a “climate roller coaster…”
https://phys.org/news/2025-12-global-amplifies-extreme-day-temperature.html
“A marine pandemic is bringing some species of sea urchin to the brink of extinction, and some populations have disappeared altogether, a study has found.
“Since 2021, Diadema africanum urchins in the Canary Island archipelago have almost entirely been killed by an unknown disease… In the same period, mass deaths have been detected in species from the Red Sea, Mediterranean, Caribbean and western Indian Ocean.”
““It’s a real nightmare”— Spiders are becoming “more angry and aggressive” due to global warming.
“Spiders are generally not hostile towards human beings and only attack in self-defense if need be; however, a recent study has revealed that due to global warming, spiders are becoming angrier and more aggressive.”
https://www.ecoportal.net/en/spiders-change-due-to-global-warming/14842/
“Climate cooling [alone] isn’t enough to save cocoa, wine, and coffee…
“Climate change threatens crop yields despite cooling strategies like Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) intervention SAI reduces temperature but fails to control rainfall and humidity risks… Major brands invest in gene editing and cultivated crops for resilience…”
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You can read the previous “Climate” thread here. I’ll be back tomorrow with an “Economic” thread.
>>> Spiders are becoming “more angry and aggressive” due to global warming.
Humans too, obviously. Meh.
Our collective state of consciousness is definitely roiled, Flippr.
The increase in forest fires has certianly contributed to the increase in CO2. But these fires have no dobut also caused an increase in soot which would if I understand correctly mask global warming in the short term. Now we are kind of dependent on forest fires to hide the reality of how fast temps are really going up.
Curt, soot gets rained out pretty quickly, so cooling from that is going to be brief and localised. If that soot finds its way to snow and ice then there will be warming from loss of albedo.
Ah fascinating I thought the stuff would work like the old bunker oil burned in ships.
Wow what a round-up. I’ll have to also report some of this when I find the time.
2°C by 2034.
Missed out .
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/10/climate/underwater-storms-melt-doomsday-pine-island-glaciers-antarctica
Good catch, Ravi. That really should have made the thread.
Venison Burgers at UK stadiums? You’re lucky that there haven’t been any cases of Chronic Wasting Disease in British deer so far. Because I would not eat wild American venison if they tried that over here. I’ve actually had to turn down venison steaks that a coworker brought in, leading to some awkward back-and-forths between us.
It’s just, prion diseases scare me way too much to take that kind of risk.
Kord, a dear family friend succumbed to prion disease in his early 60’s. He went from healthy to a locked ward for out of control dementia patients in no time at all. Terrifying.
Steak tartare was one of his favourite things to eat. I always wondered if there were a connection.
“Spiders are generally not hostile towards human beings and only attack in self-defense if need be; however, a recent study has revealed that due to global warming, spiders are becoming angrier and more aggressive.”
Lol… this is exactly the plot of the so-bad-it’s-good movie Birdemic, except spiders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrxZblVUkMU
Best enjoyed with friends and family, although there are some (brief and incompetently filmed) sex scenes as I recall.
That is Ed Wood level, “so bad it’s brilliant” cinema. 😂
“Arachnophobia” with John Goodman would be a more orthodox choice, although I haven’t seen it since it came out, so have no idea how it holds up today. Might have aged terribly.
For the no comment needed category.
Bumperstickets seen recently:
On a Tesla at the supermarket:
Clean energy not white supremacy
My Tesla identifies as a prius
On a car at the dog park:
Climate change bugs me
🙄
Some slightly confused sentiments in there, Cassandra. 😂
Bumper stickers aren’t much of a thing in the UK, although a car belonging to a young man who lives not too far from me does bear the legend, “HXRNY” across the top of the windscreen.
We’re just as opinionated as Americans but perhaps a bit less brazen with our individualism and personal expression.
We look ridiculous’: US government website removes fossil fuels as cause of global warming
Seth Borenstein with AP
It’s like pretending cigarettes don’t cause lung cancer,’ says one climate expert.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has removed any mention of fossil fuels – the main driver of global warming – from its popular online page explaining the causes of climate change.
Now it only mentions natural phenomena, even though scientists calculate that nearly all of the warming is due to human activity.
Sometime in the past few days or weeks, EPA altered some but not all of its climate change webpages, de-emphasising and even deleting references to the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, which scientists say is the overwhelming cause of climate change.
The website’s causes of climate page mentions changes in Earth’s orbit, solar activity, Earth’s reflectivity, volcanoes and natural carbon dioxide changes, but not the burning of fossil fuels.
I still believe the Vatican’s website that the Earth is the center of the Universe….
Yes, we are living in a new Middle Age and likely to get worse (sic)
PS If this was posted here already my bad, but it was “too funny” to ignore.
We live in an open democratic society of the fossil fuel sort…
Vince, I did consider posting an article about that but the last two items in the previous thread were about EPA’s, er, tinkering with its website.
It is, for reasons political and systemic, to be expected, but it’s still depressing to see science silenced in this way. Feels like darkness descending.
As the Collapse of Modernity changes into a new paradigm of Murder-nity, will the fashion design firms adapt their offerings?
Pan’s posts today offer a clue.
Women, young girls & boys, hell, even toddlers, have now been seen toting water, firewood, and the very last of their personal belongings on their heads.
What are the odds that Victoria’s Secret will feature lingerie supermodels in high heels sporting the latest in plastic or tin jugs perched on their fantastic hairdo?
The crowd will go crazy with lust and desire as the water spills onto the lace and silk and soft skin below.
Surely, sales will soar, and the corporate donations to charity will vastly increase!
Youth models can wear the latest in bulletproof fashion wear from Walmart to be in high style at school. It will be good training for when the mandatory military draft resumes.
Will kids learn to balance heavy firewood loads on their heads, or will the raging wildfires remove that fashion option? Time will tell…
Bob Shaw Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
Correction: I predict TARGET stores will be the first with bulletproof fashion wear.
Their brand logo is just too logical & obvious to pass up this marketing opportunity.
“The crowd will go crazy with lust and desire as the water spills onto the lace and silk and soft skin below.”
Cold shower for you, Bob. 😂
The good news I tried to link yesterday, Pan.
https://nonviolencenews.org/2025/12/06/protests-from-croatia-to-the-philippines/
Thanks, Mad Hatter. That is all heartening stuff, even if these protests are symptomatic of deeper stresses that are not good news.
Completely new story about oil surplus and demand. Opec has always claimed there is no surplus. Beyond the following it seems there is alot of double counting of oil stored on ships:
https://futurocienciaficcionymatrix.blogspot.com/2025/12/un-repaso-al-exceso-de-petroleo-segun.html
Thanks, Duke. I will try to find time to read that. One oil-market oddity being reported by Javier Blas on X is how numb they are becoming to geopolitical shocks, perhaps because of the perceived surplus:
The ‘teflon’ oil market:
US seizes Venezuelan oil tankers — meh
Ukraine attacks Russian ‘dark ship’ vessels — meh
Trump sanctions Russian oil companies – meh
Ukraine damages Kazakh oil port – meh
https://x.com/JavierBlas/status/1999034060480315544
Ponderosa Requiem: How a Plague Species Unmakes a Forest .
https://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/2025/12/09/ponderosa-requiem-how-a-plague-species-unmakes-a-forest/
Yep, Xraymike is one of my favorite real reality doom authors.
Ravi, was not aware of this magnitude….from the above article….
“There is a brutal honesty in admitting that, judged solely by the biotic havoc it has unleashed, the human species now behaves less like a steward and more like a planetary plague. No other animal has so thoroughly converted living complexity into dead commodities, so casually poisoned its own water and air, or so relentlessly expanded its numbers and appetites while cloaking this rampage in the language of progress and entitlement. Our technologies magnify not wisdom but whim; our economies reward extraction and wastage; our politics elevate the shameless and the short-sighted, those most skilled at denying limits and externalizing harm. Strip away the stories of human exceptionalism and what remains is a woefully self-absorbed, dangerously clever primate that has set the biosphere on fire for the sake of comfort and status, then demanded applause for its ingenuity. In the long view of deep time, Earth has repeatedly recovered from cataclysms, rebuilding richness and balance after meteors and mass extinctions; it will do so again if given respite. What is not at all clear is whether this recovery can occur with an unrestrained human presence still gnawing at the foundations of climate, soil, water, and life itself—and there is every reason to think that a future without us, or with far fewer of us, would be kinder to almost every other living thing.”
Wow, that hit me like a 2X4 Ponderosa pine across the noggin… painful to read
It is great stuff from Xraymike. He’s been going a long time now. I remember reading his articles well before I moved to Scotland over ten years ago.
Just perfect….matches Justin’s first article post….
Economic growth no longer linked to carbon emissions in most of the world, study finds
Analysis marking 10 years since Paris climate agreement underscores effectiveness of strong government policies
I’m not making this stuff up …really…even if I could try….😅🦨
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/11/economic-growth-no-longer-linked-to-carbon-emissions-in-most-of-the-world-study-finds
John Lang, the author of the ECIU report, said: “I’m definitely encouraged. Looking back shows how much progress we have made over the past 10 years. The world is now in a pre-conditioning stage ahead of structural decline. We are approaching a historic point when emissions start to go down. That is super exciting.”
I’m real excited too….full speed ahead…. We’re doing fine..and I feel fine…at least right now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-KKHXowtWc
More thorazine, nurse – this patient is manic!
The analysis is interesting but there is little point in looking at emissions on a nation-by-nation basis, and certainly no cause for optimism. The 3-year mean rate of atmospheric CO2 growth has just hit yet another record high, Prof Eliot Jacobson was reporting in my previous thread.
Where humanity is headed is where it’s been, not too long ago.
From a review of a book on Ireland in the Nov. 30 London Review of Books:
Crowds ransacked towns and seized food from ships. Farmers and shopkeepers either sold their goods quickly to prevent theft or handed them over to hungry mobs, hoping to keep a portion back for export. Even the marginally better-off were constrained by the market, forced to grow and sell food to meet inflated rents instead of feeding themselves. ‘Rot’, Scanlan argues, existed not simply in the diseased potato crop but in imperial capitalism: ‘the crisis … was the system.’
From The Burning Earth, A History, by Sunil Amrith, about the famines of the 1870s and 1890s:
Every social fissure widened. The suffering was most acute for people without the security of land and family. Poor people without claims upon patrons or kin had nothing to fall back on – often they were elderly, or they lived with disabilities. Within families, women and children, and especially girls, fared worst in the desperate search for food. The destructive pattern of the 1870s’ and 1890s’ famines was comparable across continents. Drought provoked rapid rise in the price of grain just as agricultural laborers found themselves without work and without income. Their bodies weakened by hunger, most of the victims of famine died from infectious diseases – cholera, dysentery, and malaria thrived amid a maelstrom of ecological and social disruption.
“The crisis was the system”- all in years before 1C, before 2C, before…
Martin, the Irish Potato Famine, well blight, actually made it up here to Islay. I think about that quite a lot, as someone vaguely aspiring to grow a large quantity of potatoes in the future.
It wasn’t a mass mortality event but it forced a lot emigration and contributed to the island’s steep population decline – from a peak of over 15,000 in the middle of the 19th century to around 3,000 now.
Plague? Perhaps; but methinks humanity’s agricultural system of production in & of itself adheres more closely to parasitic:
an organism that lives in or on an organism of another species (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the other’s expense.
Modern ag is not farming. It is a process that uses solar power to convert inputs into profits: ie, it is as extractive a process as strip mining, the proof of which is that it is being used to replace the biofuels usually referred to as fossil fuel. But ploughing up vast plains to power machines has no future, is, in fact, completely unsustainable as it ravages its own ecosystem, depletes groundwater and poisons lakes and streams, creating dead zones in the areas where it’s nitrogen-enriched effluents flow into the sea.
Since the appetite for personal transportation modules is insatiable, and their use indispensable to the rigged economic system humanity has devised, there is no limit to the amount of fodder the maw of the food-to-fuel processors can convert in order to power what we all know is the preferred alternative to human labor: mechanical labor.
As the poisoned water from hydraulic fracturing is pumped underground to such an extent it geysers out over time, the brackish mixture will become the only source of water for the fields of Texas where it is already being used to cultivate vast acres for the production of SAV (Sustainable Airline Fuel). Poisoned 🤢 crops grown solely to fuels flights of fancy for the well-to-do.
A plague comes & goes; parasitism such as mankind’s is its modus operandus. Murdernity allows for no other means of existence, and those rare isolated indigent communities that do know of one are being systematically eliminated… soon there will be none left.
“A plague comes & goes; parasitism such as mankind’s is its modus operandus.”
Rob, it is a painful to admit but the metaphor is apposite. We gobble up the fruits of the earth and give nothing in return. Once you see the inherent unsustainability of our modern way of life, it becomes impossible to un-see and you wonder how you overlooked the blindingly obvious for so long.
There is no better place to die of starvation than the German speaking region of Europe. You are surounded by the world’s most interesting architecture. These buildings will long outlast the people now using them. The buildings will become more and more shabby as time goes on. But their form will endure.
And the cream on the cake is that German cuisine has the best desserts in the world. So until the day arrives that food can no longer be grown, or if it can you can not stop starving people from taking it from you, you can enjoy the earths culinary delights.
And the cherry on the cream is that English language music dominates the country.
Here is a link to one of my favorite German songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QltRS3NrTI&list=RD_QltRS3NrTI&start_radio=1
Enjoy it while we can. That’s my philosophy too, Curt. And I have several monthly subscriptions to on the ground groups feeding starving Gazan Palestinians. My pathetic attempt to assuage my guilt. A drop in the bucket. Millions of very hungry people all over the world as Panopticon documents.
You are doing what you can when you can with who you can. That is all the Saint Thomas Paine asks of you.
Nice to see aggressive spiders making it to the post.
I stumbled upon a video of waste colonialism. Broken and outdated tech being sent to Ghana to be “recycled”/dumped. And the children who make their living harvesting the scraps. Sick, sad, world.
https://youtu.be/BfWSn__B49A
Thanks, Nat. That is beyond bleak. A reminder to count one’s blessings…
I have long been an avid reader of Dr. Tim Morgan:
https://surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress.com/2025/12/11/315-madmen-and-economists/
THE ESCALATING DANGERS OF ECONOMIC DENIAL
Foreword
“One of the greatest mysteries of our times is why the authorities have not only permitted but actively, through their policy choices, promoted the formation of the biggest bubble in financial history, whilst knowing perfectly well, all along, how this must end.
They cannot have done this simply to further enrich the already wealthy, since they must know perfectly well that asset value aggregates can never be converted in their entirety into spendable money.
The answer is that fears of the consequences of a bursting bubble are out-matched by an even greater fear – that the ending and reversal of economic growth might move from the land of theory into the realm of established fact.
If it ever became known that the economy had stopped growing and started to shrink, no existing set of social, political or commercial arrangements could survive.
The denial of economic inflexion is the sine qua non for the defence of the status quo. Nowhere in the world is worse equipped than the West for surviving the ending and reversal of growth.”
Me: Well said, Dr. Morgan!
The West, which has scaled the heights of Modernity, will truly plumb the horrific depths of Murder-nity as shrinkage back to a tiny, but viable carrying capacity or extinction are now the only future possibilities.
Bob Shaw Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
From where I’m standing in Ops the IT nerds and the dreaded Help Desk (and I use that term lightly) are a productivity vampire. IT is the Poster Child for the law of diminishing marginal productivity. I’m really excited about the possibility of a Carrington Event. I don’t care who dies. Peak Humanity was flip phones and fax machines. Everything since is decadence. If you need porn there’ll be 5 acres of it behind the squeak door at the truck stop.
I’m not saying I’d be on board with another Pol Pot bent on murderously implementing agrarian communism. I’m just saying it’d solve a lot of my problems.